colleges

11Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Cryptocurrency Is Changing The Way Colleges Do Business With Students And Donors

Until about 2020, universities used cryptocurrencies only to pay ransoms to criminals attacking their networks. A fast payment to criminals helped victim universities restore their networks quickly. With increasing public adoption of cryptocurrencies, especially among young consumers, universities are exploring them, too. As of early 2022, 20% of U.S. consumers had used cryptocurrencies. According to an April 2022 report, 28% of 13- to 39-year-olds had purchased at least one type of cryptocurrency. Among consumers in this age group, 13% had purchased and 38% were interested in a particular offshoot of cryptocurrencies called non-fungible tokens. Cryptocurrencies have lost market value from a peak of about US$3 trillion in November 2021 to $804 billion in November 2022. And their uses are...

Affirmative Action Bans Make Selective Colleges Less Diverse – A National Ban Will Do The Same

6Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Affirmative Action Bans Make Selective Colleges Less Diverse – A National Ban Will Do The Same

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in two lawsuits on Oct. 31, 2022, brought by a group that opposes affirmative action in college admissions. Here, Natasha Warikoo, a sociology professor at Tufts University and author of the newly released “Is Affirmative Action Fair?: The Myth of Equity in College Admissions,” shares insights on how the racial and ethnic makeup of student bodies at selective colleges and universities will change if the Supreme Court decides to outlaw affirmative action. What’s at stake with the cases against affirmative action? Currently, many selective colleges consider race when they make decisions about which students to admit. In several cases since 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that it is constitutional to do so to ensure diversity on cam...

Six Benefits That The Metaverse Offers To Colleges And Universities

24Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, IN OTHER NEWS

Six Benefits That The Metaverse Offers To Colleges And Universities

Even though it’s unclear what exactly the metaverse is and whether it even exists, colleges and universities have jumped onto the metaverse bandwagon. They have augmented in-person and remote video learning with features such as gamified interactive virtual worlds, virtual reality and mixed reality. In one of the largest efforts thus far, 10 U.S. colleges and universities have teamed up with U.S. technology company Meta and Irish virtual reality platform Engage to create 3D digital versions of their campuses, known as a metaversity. Students will engage in learning wearing immersive virtual reality headsets. In my recent research, I have examined the metaverse and how it affects organizations and societies. I see six benefits that the metaverse offers to colleges. 1. Makes educational ...

Pandemic Used By Cyber-Criminals To Attack Schools And Colleges

15Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

CYBERCRIME, EDUCATION

Pandemic Used By Cyber-Criminals To Attack Schools And Colleges

Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro Cyberattacks have hit schools and colleges harder than any other industry during the pandemic. In 2020, including the costs of downtime, repairs and lost opportunities, the average ransomware attack cost educational institutions $2.73 million. That is $300,000 more than the next-highest sector – distributors and transportation companies. From Aug. 14 to Sept. 12, 2021, educational organizations were the target of over 5.8 million malware attacks, or 63% of all such attacks. Ransomware attacks alone impacted 1,681 U.S. schools, colleges and universities in 2020. Globally 44% of educational institutions were targeted by such attacks. I study cybercrime and cybersecurity. In my forthcoming book – set to be published in November 2021 –...

Colleges Strive To Better Support Trans Students – Common Applications Will Now Allow Students To Choose Their Gender Identity

5Aug

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LGBTQ

Colleges Strive To Better Support Trans Students – Common Applications Will Now Allow Students To Choose Their Gender Identity

Genny Beemyn, University of Massachusetts Amherst Since its inception in 1975, the Common Application, the undergraduate admissions application used by more than 900 colleges, has required students to provide their “sex,” with only “male” and “female” as choices. But starting in August 2021, the Common App is also asking students their gender identities and the names and pronouns they go by. As a researcher who specializes in studying the experiences of transgender college students, I believe these changes represent a much-needed opportunity for colleges and universities that use the Common App to acknowledge and respect the gender identities of their trans students. The changes mean that some colleges will have information about their trans students for the first time. Other institutio...

At Catholic Colleges Students Leave With Less Positive Attitudes Toward Gay People Than Their Peers – But That’s Not The Whole Story

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

At Catholic Colleges Students Leave With Less Positive Attitudes Toward Gay People Than Their Peers – But That’s Not The Whole Story

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Students at Catholic colleges and universities begin their studies with more positive attitudes toward gay, lesbian and bisexual people than their peers at evangelical colleges and universities, our survey found. But that’s no longer the case by the time they graduate. Multidisciplinary research teams at Ohio State University, North Carolina State University and Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit, surveyed 3,486 students attending 122 institutions of various types, sizes and affiliations. Our study, the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey, polled the students three times over their time in college – in the fall of 2015, the spring of 2016 and the spring of 2019. W...

A Plan That Would Attract More Students To The State’s Flagship Colleges Failed – The Texas Top 10% Plan

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

A Plan That Would Attract More Students To The State’s Flagship Colleges Failed – The Texas Top 10% Plan

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea A 22-year-old Texas initiative – meant to broaden the pool of high schools whose graduates attend public universities after affirmative action was banned – has made little difference in who enrolls at Texas’ two flagship public universities, according to our new research. The Texas Top 10% Plan guarantees college admission to any four-year public Texas institution for students who graduate in the top 10% of their high school class. Our recent study, currently undergoing peer review, found that in high schools with no history of sending students to Texas A&M or the University of Texas at Austin, only about half sent a student to either flagship campus in the five-year period after the plan started in 1998....

The Racial Trust Gap – Black Students Have Far Less Trust In Their Colleges Than Other Students Do

15Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

The Racial Trust Gap – Black Students Have Far Less Trust In Their Colleges Than Other Students Do

Black undergraduates consistently said they trusted the people who run the colleges they attend – and society overall – substantially less than their white peers did. We have termed this difference the racial trust gap, and it was not a trivial difference. The trust gaps we observed were of a size rarely seen in education research. We also observed sizable trust gaps for Asian and Latino students, relative to white students. However, the magnitude of the differences were up to three times larger for Black students. Our study results tell us a lot not only about how college students trust, but also which individuals on campus they trust the least (“Not at all” or “Very little”). Campus leadership – that is, presidents, provosts, deans – are the least trusted personnel on college campuses ...

Esports Teams Dominated By Men, At Colleges Nationwide

12Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, SPORTS

Esports Teams Dominated By Men, At Colleges Nationwide

Although esports – competitive, organized video gaming – has exploded into a billion-dollar industry, women players are hard to find on esports teams at America’s colleges and universities. In the following Q&A, Lindsey Darvin, an assistant professor of sport management, shines light on the reasons. The Conversation, CC BY-ND 1. Why are college esports dominated by men? Women and girls experience many obstacles throughout esports environments – both in terms of participation and employment. These include the way they are subjected to gender-based harassmment from male esport players, toxic masculinity, stereotyping and prejudices, as I and colleagues wrote in a forthcoming article for the Sport Management Review. These circumstances have resulted in lower numbers of women and girls i...

Behind Donations Of $50 Million Or More To Colleges And Universities, Alumni Gratitude And Support For Causes

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism

Behind Donations Of $50 Million Or More To Colleges And Universities, Alumni Gratitude And Support For Causes

The top motive people cite for their donations of US$50 million or more to colleges or universities was a desire to repay a university for what they or a loved one had gotten out of attending, according to a study we published last year. The second two most common reasons were an effort to simply do what they believe is the right thing and a wish to support a particular cause or political agenda. We found this out when we researched the motives of 30 of these higher education megadonors, through random sampling, from 2010 to 2018 and reviewing about 1,700 publicly available documents and news items that discussed their gifts, including some that quoted the donors themselves. Many donors mentioned more than one motive when they explained why they gave so much money to a school. Why it ma...